Rush of Ikorr Developer Update: Banned List

Now that Shattered Chaos and Merciless Battlegrounds have had some time to simmer and the meta is starting to flatten, it was time for us to address some problematic cards. As we approach multiple competitive tournaments, it was important for us to bring to light these changes in hopes of creating a more interesting and diverse metagame. It is a solid list, but we feel that this will allow players the freedom to express their playstyles more confidently. Below the list, we have provided some design and developer notes regarding these decisions to give you clarity.

The following cards are banned in Rush of Ikorr constructed play. This means that none of these cards may be registered in decklists for sanctioned events.

Banned

Stargazer ROI-084 C
Ritual Practitioner ROI-075 U
Starry Deer Crocodile ROI-085 U
Niobe, Sulking Stone ROI-123 R
Ix Chel, Lady Rainbow ROI-009 R/ROI-010 R
Tsukuyomi’s Twilight ROI-189 UR
Trade Skills ROI-188 U
Tzolk’in (Infusion) ROI-289 R
Tresses of Nephthys (Infusion) RMB-274 R
Hermes’ Lyre (Infusion) ROI-269 R

Stargazer
As the game grows, so does the potential to take advantage of free influence. With an influence cost of 0, Stargazer has proven to be a staple in any yellow-based deck, allowing you to jump ahead of the curve. However, the real power lies in its inconspicuous pip allowance, turning any infusion with a cost of 1 into a powerful effect that also nets you an influence. For these reasons, Stargazer is banned.

Ritual Practitioner
When it comes to design, there is always an assessment of risk and cost involved in balancing cards. In the context of the Reanimate keyword, our approach to balancing it was to force its owner to eventually void it, breaking the loop and cashing it in one last time. Ultimately, the intention of the void is to serve as a zone where it feels cards are “gone for good” or that they served their time. Ritual Practitioner directly undid this principle and was far too efficient in skirting around the costs associated with Reanimate and similar effects that involved the void. For these reasons, Ritual Practitioner is banned.

Starry Deer Crocodile
Starry Deer Crocodile has been a bit of a boogeyman since Shattered Chaos and we thought that dealing with the powerful threat of Blessing of Osiris would be enough to slow the associated combo down. However, time has proven that this champion is still a dominating piece in the meta and we felt it was the correct choice to sacrifice it. As the game moves forward, we will be far more careful and attentive to abilities that refresh influence. In a “perfect-curve” game, refreshing influence often feels like taking extra turns and we have found that is not the gameplay experience we want to provide our players. Due to the crocodiles combo potential in producing infinite influence, it is banned.

Niobe, Sulking Stone
In the early stages of the game, especially before the popularity of 2v2 and 3v3, Niobe was an underdog, not seeing much play due to its symmetrical tax. However, as multiplayer has grown and the prevalence of Typhon & Izanagi decks increases, Niobe has found a home in sufficiently slowing down the opponent’s ability to answer the inevitability of a board full of beasts or other aggressive threats. In addition, the gameplay experience of facing down one Niobe is manageable, but when there are two, sometimes three of them across the table, it quickly devolves into a very poor experience for the entire team. For these reasons, Niobe, Sulking Stone, is banned.

Ix Chel, Lady Rainbow
Avatars have a particularly interesting design challenge to them in that we must check many cards against them repeatedly as the card pool expands. In a lot of cases, this makes designing relevant cards intriguing because it allows players to look back on a previous avatar and consider how new options add to the experience they create. Ix Chel has proven the flip side of that scenario in that development has had to “Ix Chel Check” cards such that they are not immediately made abusable by the avatar. This has created boundaries on our design capabilities, thus creating less exciting or impactful options for future cards. Additionally, players have discovered that the value Ix Chel generates as an avatar is far too powerful. Due to its current power and the future potential only proving stronger, Ix Chel, Lady Rainbow, is banned.

Tsukuyomi’s Twilight
From the start, we knew Tsukuyomi’s Twilight was both splashy and very impactful and thus built inherent guardrails into its mechanics. We said “we want it to do this, but not more than once” and that proved to be sufficient. As the game has grown since then, the mid to late game experience has shown to be swingy and grindy in fun and interesting ways. Tsukuyomi’s Twilight has not been one of those fun and interesting cards. After all said and done, the effect creates a three-turn yield on the game that adds time while removing agency and impactful decision-making. This hinders the pace of play and overall player experience. For these reasons, Tsukuyomi’s Twilight is banned.

Trade Skills
As mentioned before, free (or refreshed) influence has created problematic gameplay loops and negative player experiences in its potential to capitalize on game-winning actions. While seemingly innocuous, Trade Skills poses some back-breaking advantages in multiplayer that leads to both unfair and overwhelming board states. On curve, two copies of Trade Skills can provide a center player with 6 influence on turn 2. This doesn’t account for cost reducers or recursion, which only make this sort of conversion more effective. In an effort to slow down the potential of a burst in resources, Trade Skills is banned.

Tzolk’in (Infusion)
Similar to other cards on this update, Tzolk’in provides influence advantage at a rate that is disproportionate to where we intended those effects to be at. This infusion has served a very powerful role in combo decks and due to its inherent quality as an infusion, is very easily implemented. Additionally, with Maya jumping to the forefront of the meta in its effectiveness, the barrier of entry for this infusion is quite thin. For these reasons and a continued effort to slow down the rate at which players can manipulate influence, Tzolk’in is banned.

Tresses of Nephthys (Infusion)
While recursion is a necessary element to any card game, Tresses of Nephthys capitalizes on it at too little of a cost. At only 1 infusion cost and the inherent flexibility of infusions, it has proven to be far too efficient. There are several other routes to similar recursion but at far more reasonable costs. To add more variety to the recursion options, Tresses of Nephthys is banned.

Hermes’ Lyre (Infusion)
We knew when designing Rush of Ikorr that infusions would pose a unique balancing challenge simply with the sheer number of combinations that are available with each expansion, compounding exponentially. While this does not discourage us from designing both thematic and playable infusions, it does allow for a margin of unexpected power. Hermes’ Lyre has been a standout option at such an incredibly low cost, we have felt that it has served its time. Due to its high efficiency and being able to be placed on any nonFabled champion, it outclasses a lot of other options and for these reasons, Hermes’ Lyre is banned.

Additional Notes Regarding the Moonlit Magic Starter Deck
While the avatar and some of the cards in the Moonlit Magic starter deck are now banned,
that doesn’t mean you can’t still play with the starter deck. Players may legally register the
Moonlit Magic deck in a sanctioned event if and only if the deck is completely unchanged.
This also means the booster pack included in the box cannot be added to a player’s deck.

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